How to Cook Brats on the Stove

Learn how to cook brats on the stove with beer and onions. Probably the best way of cooking bratwurst sausage on the stovetop; pan-fry them with beer and onions for a simple and hearty dinner.

You don't want to wait for good weather to be able to grill some bratwurst? How about learning how to cook brats on the stove? A simple recipe for cooking bratwurst using just a few ingredients. There are different methods of cooking sausages without a hot grill, but this beer brats recipe is probably the easiest one.

And if you are at it, check out how you can cook brats in the oven or air fryer brats as well. And should you only have frozen brats, see How to Cook Frozen Sausages.

What is a Bratwurst?

THE German sausage. You can buy them everywhere, from cheap ones in the supermarket to high-quality ones at the local butcher.

There are different types of bratwurst, depending on the region in Germany. The two most obvious ones are the fine and the coarse. Both sorts are delicious, but I suppose everyone has their favorite. I prefer the coarser sort, especially when cooking brats on the stovetop. But whenever I buy sausages for grilling, I make sure to get both sorts; most kids prefer the finer ones.

Bratwurst is the kind of sausage you can get at any public event, feast, party, Oktoberfest, or other fall festivities, and anywhere. Slowly cooked on a charcoal grill, they are just amazing! Stuffed in a bun, smeared with mustard or ketchup, or sliced in a weird machine and smothered in curry sauce.

And although we can get them so easily anywhere we go, we still cook and eat them regularly at home. Everybody just loves a good bratwurst! This easy recipe is our favorite way of cooking them inside.

What do you need?

Just 3 ingredients + a little oil, salt, and pepper. You could add a small pinch of teaspoon caraway seeds to the liquid for a slightly different flavor, but it's not mandatory; I just like it.

• Bratwurst:
  • Buy good quality, preferably coarse brats. Better quality pays off; they taste better, with more spices, flavor, and less fatty.
  • My brats weighed about 75 g/ 2.7 oz each. A little more or less is fine. You might want to prolong the cooking time if they are much larger.

• Onions: one medium sliced onion, about 150 g/ 5.3 oz.
• Beer: about 250 ml/ 1 cup. If you don't want to cook with beer (although the alcohol cooks off), you can cook the dish with chicken or beef broth instead. Or apple juice for a sweeter version.

How long to cook bratwurst on the stove?

• Quarter the onion and slice the quarters.
• Heat the oil in a large, thick-bottomed pan; a cast iron skillet yields the best results.
• Sear the brats on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. (1)
• Flip using tongs and brown the other side for another 3 minutes. Searing adds a lot of flavors, so don't skip this step.
• Add the onion slices between the sausages and cook for about 2 minutes, until golden, stirring a few times. (2)
• Flip again, add beer, cover, lower temperature, and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, flipping again halfway. The internal temperature should read 71 degrees Celsius/160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don't have a meat thermometer, just cut one sausage in the middle; it's easy to see if it's cooked through. (the Amazon affiliate link opens in a new tab) (3)
• Remove the bratwurst, add salt and pepper to taste, and reduce the sauce for about 2 minutes.
• Return to the pan and turn them into the sauce. (4)
• Serve the sausages and the caramelized onions immediately.

Tips

The beer will not make a lot of sauce; its main job is to keep the brats moist, preventing them from drying or catching to the pan. It also adds flavor. Instead of beer, you could try some apple cider, either with alcohol or without.

Why cook brats in beer?

The idea behind it is to cook the sausages all the way through. You start by browning them in the pan, then adding onions and beer. Without the beer, the onions would burn before the brats were cooked through. Another reason is the extra flavor the beer imparts to them.
As mentioned above, beer is a perfect match in terms of flavor, but otherwise, you can use other liquids as well: apple juice, cider, chicken, beef stock, or vegetable stock, or even water. Non-alcoholic beer should be fine as well.

Which beer is best for cooking brats?

A lager or a pils has a nice flavor, but they are not overpowering. They are cheap and easily available everywhere in the world. Another advantage is that they don't tend to boil over when you use them for cooking.

Recipe FAQs

How to serve bratwurst?

Always with mustard. Otherwise, you can have them with bread, stuffed in a bread roll or hot dog bun, or with fries, ketchup, or mayonnaise. They also go well with German Potato Salad or any kind of sour cream potato salad, with German Noodle Salad, oven-baked potato wedges with chili, and most other potato side dishes you can think of.

And cooked sauerkraut or Bavarian sauerkraut. Brats and sauerkraut are a match made in heaven. Some mashed potatoes on the side, and you will feel like you are in Germany.

More sausages

Recipe

How to Cook Brats on the Stove

Learn how to cook brats on the stove with beer and onions. A simple, hearty and delicious way of cooking bratwurst.

4.80 from 55 votes

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Course: Meat Recipes

Cuisine: American, German

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 5

Calories: 554kcal

Author: Adina

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Ingredients 

• ▢ 10 small brats about 75 g/ 2.7 oz each (Note)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ▢ 1 medium onion more or less 150 g/ 5.3 oz
• ▢ 250 ml/ 8.5 fl.oz/ 1 cup beer
• ▢ fine sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

• Quarter the onion and slice the quarters.
• Heat a large thick-bottomed pan (preferably cast-iron skillet). Add oil. Sear the brats on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, flip using tongs and cook on the other side for another 3 minutes.
• Add the onions between the sausages and cook for about 2 minutes, until golden, stirring a few times.
• Flip the sausages again, add beer, cover, and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, flipping again halfway. The internal temperature should read 71 degrees Celsius/160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don't have a meat thermometer, just cut one sausage in the middle, it's easy to see if it's cooked through.
• Remove the brats, add salt and pepper to taste, and reduce the sauce for about 2 minutes. Return the sausages to the pan and turn them into the sauce.
• Serve immediately.
  

Notes

If your brats are larger is fine, just increase the cooking time slightly and check if they are done by cutting one in the middle.

Nutrition

Serving: 2brats | Calories: 554kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 47g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 28g | Cholesterol: 111mg | Sodium: 1390mg | Sugar: 1g

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